Saturday's Wisky game

[Ogee Ogilthorpe]

Apologies if this has been mentioned in any detail, I haven't read thru every thread.

For the most part, Saturday was the first game of conference race and even national relevance that any member of the Gophers had ever played late in the month of November. Wisky has played in a LOT of games like Saturday's game and for most of them, it was not THAT big of a game. I thought that was just as much a factor as anything else in the outcome of Saturday's game. When the Gophers had the ball, it was abundantly clear to me that one unit on the field had played in numerous games of this magnitude while the other unit was often overwhelmed by the magnitude, especially the underclassmen.

How to handle games like Saturday's (and even this Saturday with MSU really) is just another step in the process of building up a program. You could make the argument that the Gophers have played in two relatively "big games" this season (or ones that were hyped as BIG games going in); Iowa and Wisconsin. Iowa was a dumpster fire and against Wisky, especially on offense, the underclassmen played like underclassmen.

There are going to be many steps in this process but Saturday was a big one. Guys have to know how to handle playing in big games. Saturday against MSU won't be QUITE as big as the Wisky game but it will still be a big one for the Gophers. Exposure and experience like this are going to go a long, LONG ways towards building this program up.

Saturday's game is HUGE. Absolutely HUGE. A win for the Gophers Saturday likely ensures that the Gophers won't get bypassed for a bowl selection by both Michigan and Iowa (both of whom could lose this weekend and finish with 7 wins). A loss and they almost certainly will get bumped by Michigan, and maybe even Iowa, both with one less win than the Gophers.

 

[50PoundHead]

Good analysis. My disappointment with the Iowa game is we simply didn't hit back physically. That has improved markedly throughout the season. The biggest difference Saturday was Wisconsin's superiority at the skilled positions. I thought we stood toe-to-toe with them in the trenches and that kind of dedication to smashmouth is something we've lacked since Holtz bolted.

I realize a ton of folks here absolutely despise Holtz, but he's had some nice things to say about the Gophers all season and was very complimentary this past Saturday. I think he and Kill subscribe to the same brand of physical football and Lou respects that.

 

[mnsports1]

Good analysis. My disappointment with the Iowa game is we simply didn't hit back physically. That has improved markedly throughout the season. The biggest difference Saturday was Wisconsin's superiority at the skilled positions. I thought we stood toe-to-toe with them in the trenches and that kind of dedication to smashmouth is something we've lacked since Holtz bolted.

I realize a ton of folks here absolutely despise Holtz, but he's had some nice things to say about the Gophers all season and was very complimentary this past Saturday. I think he and Kill subscribe to the same brand of physical football and Lou respects that.

I really liked how our safeties played the run yesterday.

 

[GophersInIowa]

I really liked how our safeties played the run yesterday.

I mentioned it in another thread too. They were the last line of defense and made some great open field tackles on two of the top running backs in the conference. There were several times where I thought White or Gordon was going to break a long one but our safeties made sure it was a 10-15 yarder instead of a 40+.

 

[killme]

My disappointment with the Iowa game is we simply didn't hit back physically.

This has been mentioned several times since that game, but I believe Coach Claeys said immediately after that it was our guys losing focus on technique -- with our hands, I believe -- more so than being physically overmatched. It was easy from the average fan's perspective - myself included - to think that we weren't going to be able to match up physically in the B1G. Once the coaches reassured that we could, I became confident it would happen. Voila! I think every game we've played after Iowa, the opponent has gained a huge measure of respect for us PHYSICALLY.

 

[Ole]

This has been mentioned several times since that game, but I believe Coach Claeys said immediately after that it was our guys losing focus on technique -- with our hands, I believe -- more so than being physically overmatched. It was easy from the average fan's perspective - myself included - to think that we weren't going to be able to match up physically in the B1G. Once the coaches reassured that we could, I became confident it would happen. Voila! I think every game we've played after Iowa, the opponent has gained a huge measure of respect for us PHYSICALLY.

I'm hoping that after another 15 practices we come out with ice water in our veins against our bowl opponent and play big in that game in all phases.
Our physical style is only going to get better once we get older, stronger, and learn better technique.
It shouldn't be simply ignored that we are still basically 2 years from being even physically to wisky, iowa, etc. We still have alot of 2nd and 3rd year guys on the lines going up against alot of 4th and 5th year guys. We still matched up fairly well.
Skill positionwise we just didn't come up with the clutch plays we had in others games this year, I think had Engel played we'd likely had been more competitive on O.
We are going to be just fine going forward, I can't help but smile at where we are now coming from where we were in 2011.

 

[killme]

When the Gophers had the ball, it was abundantly clear to me that one unit on the field had played in numerous games of this magnitude while the other unit was often overwhelmed by the magnitude, especially the underclassmen.

...Saturday's game is HUGE.

I think the "big game" observation is relevant. Controlling your emotions is a factor in big games and rivalry games. No substitute for experience and the fact that there were some seniors on our D and the D played well I think is no coincidence. If this is true, might our D have an even bigger advantage this week? We will probably need them to play even better this Saturday since our O will be facing an even tougher opponent.